Home exercise equipment can be a huge benefit when it comes to a crowded schedule that leaves little room for fitness.

In today's busy world, finding time to exercise can be a real challenge. Home exercise equipment can be a huge benefit when it comes to a crowded schedule that leaves little room for fitness. Consider exercising while watching television or as a warm-up before leaving for work in the mornings. Without the hassle of going to the gym, adding exercise to your daily routine at home may make getting in shape a lot easier.

Here, you'll find useful information about exercise equipment, from buying advice to maintenance to what types of equipment are best for you. There is a tremendous variety of equipment on the market designed to help you exercise more effectively, and below are a few of those products which we recommend:

Core Trainer

The Core Trainer is an innovative, effective piece of exercise equipment from Panasonic that allows you to site down and perform low impact exercises that help lead to high impact results. This is made possible by innovative Counter-Balance exercise technology, which constantly moves you off your center of balance, forcing you to use your thighs, back, stomach and other core muscles to re-gain your balance. This reaction efficiently and effectively maximizes the building of core body strength while minimizing body and joint stress, as well as impact and aerobic demand.

BOSU/Disc

A great way to both work on strengthening the core muscles that wrap around your waist and support your spine and improve your balance and coordination is with a new workout tool called a BOSU which stands for "both sides up." On one side it is a half of a balance ball on the other side it is a flat surface.

This is a great tool that allows you to complete a variety of different workouts. Inflatable discs or foam pads are another type of workout tool to exercise your nervous system and improve your balance and coordination. This is a great way to reduce your risk of injury as you age. Many age-related injuries are due to falls because of poor balance and coordination.

Exercise Ball

These days an exercise ball is a great tool to have and use at home. You can do a thorough workout on it, you can stretch on it and you can use it as a desk chair. Make sure to get the correct size. There are great videos that you can use to learn basic exercise routines.

Foam Roll

A foam roll is exactly what it sounds like a long roll made of foam which can be used to help with balance and coordination exercise, to help you stretch your muscles and to "roll out" the stress and tension in your muscles in order to release the lactic acid that builds up in muscles and causes pain.

Power Plate

The Power Plate's Advanced Vibration Technology is the most innovative health and fitness tool in the industry today. Backed by over 40 years of scientific research, vibration training enables you to achieve a higher level of fitness faster than traditional methods. The Power Plate produces a vibration that is transferred to the body. This mechanical stimulus produces a stretch reflex eliciting involuntary muscle contractions. The Power Plate has been used extensively by top athletes and is now widely accepted all over the world by medical, rehabilitation and health & fitness professionals.

Resistance Bands/Weights

In order to keep your muscles strong, you must stress them by resistance training. Dumbbell weights or resistance bands are great ways to strengthen your muscles. Resistance bands are great because they are easy to travel with. Take them on your next business trip and you won't miss a workout wherever you are.

Wrist Metabolism Monitor

If you are a gadget junkie, a professional athlete or just like to have the most advanced new technology, you'll want the Suunto t6. It is a wristwatch that calculates your heart rate, energy consumption, ventilation, oxygen consumption (VO2), respiratory rate, Training Effect and EPOC (Excess Post-Exercise Oxygen Consumption). You can then wirelessly upload your data to your computer to track your progress. They even have programs that will correlate your data with sport specific training programs. They have programs for novices through professional athletes. You have to check this out, it's cutting edge technology that can help you get better results, faster.

Personal Trainer

Another great way to get results is to make sure you are getting expert advice and supervision. A personal trainer is a great way to ensure that you are exercising safely and effectively to accomplish your goal. All exercise is not the same; some people want to build more muscle mass, some people want more tone and definition, some want to lose weight. All three have different strategies. You can speak with a wellness coach to provide a routine and information, but a personal trainer will be in the fitness center, at the wellness center or at your home with you watching your body mechanics, showing you the best equipment to use and most importantly pushing you towards maximize results.

Videos, Books, & Internet

With today's technology there really is no good excuse not to stretch and exercise properly. You can check out exercise videos for free at the local library, rent them from video stores or access free information online. You can even purchase exercise, yoga and pilates programs to download onto your iPod.